Introduction of Marshal Di Qing (武曲下生化狄青)

 
Di Qing (狄青) aka Di Han Chen (狄漢臣), born in Song Dynasty, Da Zhong Xiang Fu Period (AD1008 生于宋朝大中祥符年間), hometown in Shan Xi Province, Fen Yang Area (家鄉於山西省太原市汾陽).

At the age of 16, Di Qing's brother killed one of their hometown-mate and was being sentenced to jail, but due to brotherly love and the respect he had for his brother, Di Qing volunteered himself to replace his brother for the jailing.

Soon after the sentenced being cleared, Di Qing joined the army troop to serve the nation. Because of his willingness to learn and loyalty to the nation, he was being appointed as one of the Commanders soon after he joined.

After he was being appointed as the Commander, he was being selected to lead troops of Song army to fight against the invaders from surrounding barbarian kingdoms. Every time he went for battling, he would put on a Copper Mask to hide his face from the enemies and soon, he was being given a name of Mian Nie Jiang Jun 面涅将军(whenever the enemies saw someone with such a mask would automatically retreat, cos they knew that they were not the match of Di Qing).

In some other myths, the mask was believed to be a gift from Xuan Tian Shang Di (玄天上帝). During one battling, Di Qing was unable to defeat the enemies, so Di Qing was quite disappointed and made a slight complain to the Heaven, after the complain, a Deity appeared in the Northern Sky – which is Xuan Tian Shang Di. Aftering paying respect to Xuan Tian Shang Di, Di Qing was presented with a mask and a gourd with magical arrows. From then, Di Qing became undefeatable and incredible.

AD1040, Di Qing was being promoted to an Officer of Military Planning, which hold the authorities of commanding National Army Troops.

AD1056, due to Di Qing was being highly respected by the Song Emperor, a lot of officers were quite being provoked and tried ways of getting rid of Di Qing. Soon after one of the cruel officer who knew about Di Qing was actually one of the murderer of his own hometown mate (which actually was Di Qing’s Brother), he made crude petition to Song Emperor of sacking Di Qing from the Officer of Military Planning. After several more such petitions, Song Emperor had to take in the decision. After Di Qing knowing about such incident, he resigned his position from the Imperial Court.

AD1057, after returning to his hometown, Di Qing was infected with serious illness. Soon after getting the illness, Di Qing passed away at his hometown, with an age of 49. In some other records, it was believed that Di Qing was actually being murdered by assassins appointed by the Imperial Court.

Due to Di Qing's credits and merits in bringing peacefulness to the Country and the myths that he was a reincarnation of Lord Wu Qu (武曲星君) from the Northern Heaven, he was being respect as a Deity of Military.

In Folks Culture, he was also being respect as Di Fu Qian Sui (狄府千歲) or Wu Hu Da Jiang Jun (五虎大將軍).

Till today, a lot of Asia Countries still pay respect to him.

For High Res Pictures, please proceed to this link: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/taoism_deity_singapore_2007/photos/album/765114941/pic/list